


Typical

by Eloarei



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gender Issues, Intersex, M/M, Not Really AU, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-19 23:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1487323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eloarei/pseuds/Eloarei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The development of their relationship was about to come to a head, though Kurapika was rather afraid it was about to come to a halt. "I really do want to," he said, brows drawn down in worry. "But I have to tell you something first. I haven't been entirely... forthcoming."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Typical

**Author's Note:**

> Back in the day, before the new series, I used to see a lot of people writing Kurapika as *~secretly actually being a girl~*, which was sort of funny because I think it was due mostly to people wanting to ship Leopika without it being gay. Which is not even slightly a problem I have.  
> This doesn't have anything to do with that; I just think gender things are fun to explore.  
> ~ Title and some wording in the story vaguely inspired by Tegan and Sara song "Closer".

  
The 'romance', if you want to call it that, was sudden and surprising. Except it wasn't either of those things. In the grand scheme of things, yes, maybe, if they looked back on their lives at the end of it all, it would seem to have happened spontaneously, but that was true of most things. It started just after they met, maybe the second day, when they'd begun being civil to each other. (Nowadays, it seemed hilarious and almost impossible to them that they'd gotten along so badly.) Not “started” in that they'd kissed, or touched, or even knew they really liked each other all that much, but in that they were growing closer. “Started” in the way that all great things start: slowly. It escalated over the coming weeks, their natural enjoyment of each other's proximity. And as they experienced it, it didn't seem sudden.

And given the circumstances, it was not surprising, either. Aside from Gon, and then Killua, and sometimes, annoyingly, Tonpa, Leorio and Kurapika spent nearly all their time during the Hunter exam almost exclusively in the other's company. It wasn't strange that they should begin to like each other. (Not that anybody was any closer to liking Tonpa, despite being locked in a room with him for three whole days. Nearness, clearly, was not the only factor when it came to liking someone.) The two of them were fairly like-minded as well, for all that, to the casual onlooker, Leorio appeared to be a tactless idiot, and Kurapika seemed an overly-serious prude. Neither of them did a very good job of hiding their soft inner-selves from the other.

It came to a head, the development of their relationship, while they were training at Mt. Kukuroo. Rather, Kurapika was vaguely worried the relationship might come to a halt instead.

The night was a nice one, the light breeze comfortable on their tired bodies. They were at a peak in the training process, their muscles having adapted well to the strain, so they were enjoying a rare evening of not collapsing dead into their beds after dinner. The servants and groundskeepers had all retired to their own rooms, and Gon was... elsewhere, probably “secretly” training, like he did most nights. Most likely, he wouldn't be back for hours, so Leorio thought this might finally be the ideal time to discuss with Kurapika the finer points of their relationship.

'Discuss' was perhaps not _quite_ the right word for what he was intending, but still.

“Whatcha readin'?” he asked as he casually strolled over to Kurapika's bedside and sat down on the edge that had been left almost conspicuously open.

The blonde young man's eyes slid from the page he'd been lazily scanning over to Leorio, who had sat back against the pillows next to him and stretched his long legs out. He gave him a small, amused smile and closed the book, setting it down on the vacant side of the bed. “Nothing especially interesting.”

“Oh, good,” Leorio said, then laughed. “I mean, sorry.”

“It's fine,” Kurapika said softly, readjusting himself against the pillows and turning slightly to better face Leorio. They sort of smiled at each other for a few long moments, enjoying the quiet and the fresh mountain air that drifted in through the partly-open window. This trip would have seemed almost like a vacation, if it weren't for the strenuous training and their reason for visiting in the first place.

Leorio nudged his leg up against Kurapika's and gave him an adoring smile that was soft but reached his eyes, and Kurapika's as well. “So, I guess Gon's out training again.”

“I guess he is,” Kurapika responded, meeting Leorio's eyes.

“He probably won't be back for a while,” Leorio mentioned, edging millimeters closer.

“Probably not.” Kurapika leaned a few degrees in.

“Do you want...?” Leorio trailed off, the rest of his sentence dissolving into a huff of nervous laughter. “I mean, how do you want to spend the evening?” He left his mouth the tiniest bit open, teeth scraping lightly over his lower lip as he waited for a response.

A little laugh escaped Kurapika, much like Leorio's unsure one, and he barely stopped himself from answering with a breathy, “yeah,” because that wasn't a proper response to Leorio's question, and also wasn't exactly what his brain meant, although the over-active bundle of neurons and synapses was a bit distracted by the warmth seeping into him through the cloths that separated them. He knew what Leorio meant, because they'd both been teetering on the edge of the topic for at least a week or two, and he knew how Leorio felt about it (he didn't really make it a secret; lord, _Gon_ probably knew), and he knew how _he_ was planning to feel about it. Things _usually_ went how he planned, but, well...

His smile must have trailed off into pensiveness or something, because Leorio backed off a little. “I just thought maybe we could...” He rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. “But, hey, if you don't want to, y'know, that's totally fine.”

“No, I want to!” Kurapika leaned forward and laid his hand on Leorio's leg in his haste. He curled his fingers back when he realized how forward that seemed, but didn't remove his hand entirely because he didn't want to send mixed messages, at least. His face did heat up considerably though.

The little tenseness that had built up in Leorio melted away, and he settled back down against the pillows. “But what?” he asked, after a fairly deep breath, voice calm and full of understanding for whatever Kurapika might say.

“But nothing,” Kurapika said, a little quickly, heart-rate jumping to match.

“Nothing?” Leorio raised an eyebrow a fraction. “So you're really okay with... this? Us?”

Kurapika nodded shortly. “Definitely,” he said, voice soft, but firm, and a little overwhelmed at the thought of how okay he really was.

Leorio leaned further into the blonde's space, having set aside his feeling that something was wrong. “Can I kiss you, then?” His eyes shined from the glow of the low lamp in the room, or perhaps Kurapika just saw it that way.

“You don't have to ask,” he said with a playful nudge. He appreciated it, though. They'd kissed before, a few times, and it was fine. Good, actually. Kissing was nice, intimate but fairly noninvasive. He leaned in, closing most of the space between them and letting Leorio close the rest. His breath was warm and tickled the tiny hairs on his face as Leorio started off with light, feathery kisses.

Kissing was nice, and Kurapika was pretty sure they both enjoyed it quite a lot, but there was somewhere they wanted to go from there, and that was the problem. It wasn't fair to either of them, to just keep going like this.

“Wait,” Kurapika said breathily, drawing back just far enough for the words to fit between their warm lips.

“Hnn?” Leorio's eyes fluttered open.

“I really do want to... _you know_.” Kurapika cursed himself for the shyness most would probably say was uncharacteristic of him, if they'd ever seen him do anything else, given how driven he was normally. And it wasn't as if he wasn't plenty familiar with 'the birds and the bees' and such. Leorio just nodded him on with a patient smile in his eyes, though still a little dazed from their heated contact. “But I need to tell you something first. I haven't been entirely... forthcoming.”

Confusion settled over Leorio's face, clearly wondering what bad news Kurapika could possibly have for him if it wasn't 'I don't want to have sex with you'. His eyes unfocussed as he imagined wildly for a few seconds, before centering back on the blonde's worried face. He reached a hand out and gripped Kurapika's arm lightly, wanting to be supportive.

Kurapika sighed. “I'm-- _my body_ isn't, probably, what you're expecting. I'm not sick!” he added, before Leorio could butt in to ask.

At this, Leorio blushed but laughed. “Just because I've gotten a little excited over women in the past doesn't mean I'm not interested in guys too.” Despite his mood, Kurapika raised an eyebrow at him over 'a little excited', remembering the Trick Tower. Leorio blew air at him and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, cut me some slack. Besides...” His gaze turned tender. “It doesn't matter to me. I've never been, uh, physically close with a guy before but I'm pretty sure it works kinda the same way and, y'know, it'll be kind of like an adventure, right?” His question at the end insinuated his assumption that Kurapika had never 'been with' a man either, and he seemed to think they could laugh through this new experience together, which Kurapika found sort of sweet, except that Leorio had misunderstood him completely.

“That's not what I meant at all.” He sighed, a little exasperated, but actually, when he took even the shortest moment to think about it, really glad to be having this conversation with Leorio, of all the people he could have become close to in his life. The man was an absolute idiot at times, a huge dork, and taller and lankier than anyone had a right to be, but thinking of spilling his secrets like this to anyone else made Kurapika cringe. He was just worried Leorio would... what? Not like him anymore? He caught the man's eyes and really absorbed the almost ridiculously sincere expression on his face, and he realized his fears were probably a little overblown.

The enthusiasm melted off Leorio's face slowly. “...No?”

The blonde shook his head. “I told you, it's about my body. I imagine you're expecting it to look like yours?”

“Similar,” Leorio said with shrugging nod.

“Well, it's not.”

Leorio looked skeptical about this statement, and a little worried. “We've never, I mean, you don't know for sure what I look like.”

A short laugh escaped Kurapika and he wasn't sure exactly why. Maybe this conversation was sort of absurd. “I've been around you in mornings, and when we kiss sometimes. I know what sort of parts you have.”

Realization dawned over Leorio's face. “You're saying you _don't_? Have those parts.”

No words came out of Kurapika's mouth, so he closed it and just nodded instead, eyes hesitant but steady on Leorio's face.

Leorio's mouth couldn't seem to close all the way. “You're saying you're actually a girl?” he asked, incredulous, confused, and trying not to over-react. It just didn't make sense! He'd seen Kurapika shirtless, and he was extremely flat, and he had an Adam's apple, and he was pretty sure there were the beginnings of some soft sideburns dusting the edges of his face and...?

“N-no!” Kurapika said, a little too loudly and forcefully before he remembered that there were other people in the house. He lowered his voice and took a calming breath. “It's not... I mean... I don't think it's that simple.”

A million questions were running through Leorio's head, and he started and abruptly quit a few as he searched for the right one. “Have you always known?” he eventually asked, honest curiosity and concern showing on his face.

Kurapika's shoulders seemed to melt a little. He shuffled back against the pillows as he thought of a way to answer questions he'd never been asked. He'd never really talked about this much, let alone to anyone outside his clan. “Sort of. It wasn't a surprise, if that's what you mean. It's not as if the kids in my clan all ran around naked, but I did see some of them when we were bathing or swimming. When you're little, you don't really think about that kind of thing.” He seemed to get lost in thought for a moment before he blinked back into the present and continued talking. “We played in mixed-gender groups, so it wasn't a big deal. I was a boy, and I looked like I did, and my friends all looked like they did, and it didn't matter. Maybe some of the other kids were... like me, but I don't remember. By the time we were all old enough to pay attention to that kind of thing, we were old enough not to swim without clothes, so I never noticed.”

“Then when did you, you know, realize you weren't...-” Leorio resisted his first instinct and searched around in his mind for a word other than 'normal'. “-uh, typical?” (He wasn't sure that was much less offensive of a word, but Kurapika didn't seem to mind.)

“There wasn't really a single moment,” he said. “It was just like learning what sex was; it was mostly through gossip and rumors. Childish things. Nobody ever sat me down and talked me through it. Maybe my parents...”

He trailed off, but Leorio thought he knew what he was thinking. Maybe his parents would have sat him down, given him 'the talk', if they hadn't been killed. He'd been so young when he'd come home to the burning wreckage of his village, hardly old enough to be an adult all on his own, never old enough for the revenge he took upon himself. And that hadn't even been that long ago, yet here they were about to possibly have sex and Leorio's head was spinning. He felt horrible all of a sudden, and more like the skeevy old man people tended to think he was than the barely-adult mess of half-baked plans and aspirations he really was. He wasn't really sure right now about any of this, but two things were still obvious to him: he really liked Kurapika, _really_ liked him and: the blonde needed distraction and comforting _badly_ before he starting heading too far down a dark part of memory lane. 

“You know,” he started, grinning _almost_ lecherously (lecherous-light, he thought, hoping it was the right amount to diffuse Kurapika's tenseness), “I _am_ a doctor. In training. I could, uh, examine you and, uh, let you know what I think. Professionally!” He wasn't sure either of them were fully in the mood to be physical at the moment, but perverted comments were his best resource for making people take him or the situation less seriously.

Kurapika raised his eyes from where they'd fallen down to his hand, still lingering on Leorio's leg, but his expression was neither amused nor annoyed. Instead, he looked vaguely hopeful. “You don't mind? Even though I'm--” He blinked, and some part of him seemed to snap back into place, making him laugh. “What am I saying? It's _you_. Of course you don't mind.”

A relieved bark of laughter bubbled up out of Leorio, and he pulled a mock-offended face. “I could keep my hands to myself! But why would I want to do that, when I could put them all over the attractive blonde I've got in my bed?”

“This is _my_ bed, Leorio,” Kurapika said in his best 'you're an idiot' voice, though the smile that had crept up onto his face was a little too obvious in his voice for the words to sound very chastising.

“I don't see your name on it!” Leorio nudged his hip playfully, and Kurapika shoved him lightly, and they poked back and forth at each other, laughing until they were so far into each other's space that every mirthful movement of their lips became a kiss instead and they slid down the pillows and fell into a tangle together. They breathed each other in as their heartbeats evened out and their eyes drooped comfortably closed.

Before they fell asleep, Kurapika felt the need to ask one more time, just to be sure. “It's really okay with you? It doesn't bother you at all?”

“I'm not bothered,” Leorio murmured into Kurapika's hair, not bothering to open his eyes. “Maybe a little hot, but not bothered.” He laughed when Kurapika pushed at him lazily with the leg not trapped between them. “It wasn't what I expected, but neither was any of this. That just makes it more fun, I think. And I'm definitely curious.” He peeked an eye open and felt his face warm up to match the blonde's slight blush.

“I can _tell_ ,” he muttered with a laugh, hiding his face in a pillow. Leorio's 'curiosity' was tangible and evoking a 'curious' reaction in Kurapika's own body. He giggled heedlessly and smiled harder when Leorio followed suit. Kurapika thought it was particularly funny that Leorio ended up being right, in a way; this was bound to be a strange new experience for them both, and there was no chance they wouldn't laugh through the whole thing and, hopefully, long after it became typical. 

**Author's Note:**

> Gon stayed gone for a conveniently long time, bless the boy.


End file.
